The invention relates to a bearing device for a lengthwise-displaceable telescoping tube of a sliding roof for vehicles, especially motor vehicles, said tube being pivotable about a pivot axis running diagonally to the lengthwise axis, with a guide traversed by the telescoping tube and fastened to a bearing block.
In a known bearing device of this type (German OS No. 28 36 978), the guide is made rubber-elastic. It is elastically deflectable in the thrust direction of the rod and/or twistable at an angle thereto about the pivot axis, so that a rubber-elastic thrust bearing is produced in the thrust direction and/or a torsion bearing is produced in the pivot direction. The mutual connection between the guide and a bearing part is produced by vulcanizing, glueing, or the like. By comparison with other known bearing devices, wherein the guide is mounted in a bearing part by hinge pins, this design is intended to avoid bearing play and the rattling noise that occur at the bearing points. However, the mutual connection between the bearing part and the rubber-elastic guide is especially problematical. Manufacture is relatively expensive.
Thus, a principal object of the present invention is to provide a bearing device of the type recited hereinabove, which is especially simple and inexpensive to manufacture, which is characterized by high operating safety, but which is, at the same time, free of bearing play and rattling noises.
This object is achieved according to a preferred embodiment of the invention by virtue of the fact that, instead of the known bearing part, a bearing member is used which comprises a bearing part for the guide that permits a pivoting movement of the guide by spring action. The design according to the present invention makes a critical, relatively highly stressed, vulcanized or glued bond between the guide and the bearing block unnecessary. The guide also need not form a rubber-elastic thrust bearing or torsion bearing itself; rather, the rotary movement of the guide is accepted by a spring-loaded supporting part of the bearing member.
Preferably, at least one spring tongue is provided as the supporting part, to which torque the guide is fastened by pushing or clipping.
In order to eliminate annoying rattling at the point of contact between the guide and the telescoping tube, the bearing member, in accordance with another aspect of the invention, is provided with at least one spring-loaded pressing part for pressing a portion of the wall of the bore in the guide, which surrounds the telescoping tube, against the circumferential wall of the telescoping tube. The bearing member can advantageously be provided with three spring-loaded tongues pretensioned against one another and extending essentially in the direction of the lengthwise axis of the telescoping tube, with the two outer tongues forming the supporting part and the middle tongue, the pressing part. In such a case, the guide is advantageously equipped with two lateral projections to receive the free ends of the spring tongues that form the support, and the guide is slotted in the area between these projections, in order to produce at least one spring-loaded nose to cooperate with the pressing part. The slots which delimit the nose advantageously terminate in front of the end edges of the guide. This ensures that the telescoping tube will be surrounded by a continuous wall in the area of the two guide ends. This ensures sturdy guidance.
The guide can also be made of plastic, in particular, which has noise-reducing material properties, while the bearing member is advantageously made of sheet steel.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, a single embodiment in accordance with the present invention.